Hey y'all we're thinking of moving temporary back to The States (South Florida) for half a year. We have two small school aged kids and I, the American, would be freelancing there. Has anyone done anything like this? I have a few questions that maybe some of you could give me some input on:
1) What kind of hoops do i have to jump through to get my Dutch wife a work permit or at least a residency permit for 6 months?
2) How do i get my kids registered in school there and unregistered here (they have dual citizenship)?
3) What do I do about health and car insurance (put it on hold in NL, and get it there).
4) What do I do with my eenmanzaak (put it on hold)? How are taxes gonna work?
5) I forgot to file tax returns last year in USA. Do i need to get that settled before trying to work in The States again? Can anyone recommend someone to sort this out for me?
6) Can I lease a car for 6 months?
Thanks in advance for sharing any relavent experiences.
guysmall said:
Hey y'all we're thinking of moving temporary back to The States (South Florida) for half a year. We have two small school aged kids and I, the American, would be freelancing there. Has anyone done anything like this? I have a few questions that maybe some of you could give me some input on:
1) What kind of hoops do i have to jump through to get my Dutch wife a work permit or at least a residency permit for 6 months?
2) How do i get my kids registered in school there and unregistered here (they have dual citizenship)?
3) What do I do about health and car insurance (put it on hold in NL, and get it there).
4) What do I do with my eenmanzaak (put it on hold)? How are taxes gonna work?
5) I forgot to file tax returns last year in USA. Do i need to get that settled before trying to work in The States again? Can anyone recommend someone to sort this out for me?
6) Can I lease a car for 6 months?
Thanks in advance for sharing any relavent experiences.
Hi there,
We recently did the same thing. I'm American, my husband is Dutch and we have two kids, both with Dutch/American nationality.
We moved out of Holland and are now living here, temporarily for a year. My husband will be here for 2 years.
For the kids, we signed them out of school, but not out of the gemeente. When we arrived here, we had to prove to the gemeente that they were attending school here, for the school year. The shcool that they are currently going to had to write a letter. That was it.. we were not required to sign them out of the gemeente.
For myself, as an American, I didn't want to lose my residence permit and have to reapply after a year. So, I just didn't sign out of the gemeente. We have a house in Holland and as far as the gemeente and government know, I am still living there. I have been back to NL once, for a week, since we've been gone and I plan on going back at the end of April for about a week. Then we will be back in NL for the summer (the kids and myself). But we did not tell the government that I'm not in the country and well, I think in this instance, the less they know the easier it will be for me. I have been out of the country now since September (so, about 5-6 months now). Nobody gave me a hard time at the Schiphol when I was back in October.. hopefully nobody will give me a hard time when I go back in April. But I don't think so.
I'm not sure on the American side, what you will have to do to get your wife an American residence permit or temp. permit for more than the 3 month tourist time she can stay in the US. I would go to the US consulate directly and make an appointment to ask about that.
To send your kids to school in the US, should be easy. All you really have to do is fill out an application where they will be going, probably show them their US passports, and everything will be all set. The US is easy with those things.
We put our car insurance on hold, in Holland. But when I was back in October, I actually sold our car, so we don't have to worry about that anymore. But you can call your insurance agency and they can put the insurance on hold.
In terms of filing tax returns in the US, I wouldn't worry about it. Did you earn money in the US last year? If you have your w-2's, you can just take them to a tax preparation place and they can file them, no worries.
You can probably rent a car for 6 months in the US. Just to go a car rental place (Avis, etc) and ask them what the rates are month to month for rental cars. Do you have a US credit card and valid driver's licence? Then it should be okay.
Good luck!
1) What kind of hoops do i have to jump through to get my Dutch wife a work permit or at least a residency permit for 6 months? IMHO if only six months she should just enter as a tourist and not work.
2) How do i get my kids registered in school there and unregistered here (they have dual citizenship)? If they are US citizen this is easy just enroll them in the local school.
3) What do I do about health and car insurance (put it on hold in NL, and get it there). OUCH! No employer insurance? be prepared to pay out a large bag full of cash for health insurance to cover your family (This will be your largest cost that you'll have for this six month adventure). Maybe look at option for travel insurance in NL (really six months is no more than a very long holiday. You can't call six month a move is just a long vacation or business trip). As to the cost of car insurance - same thing. Plan to raid your bank stash if you're under 25.
4) What do I do with my eenmanzaak (put it on hold)? How are taxes gonna work? Six months? that's nothing that is a long vacation! Che with your local tax professional
5) I forgot to file tax returns last year in USA. Do i need to get that settled before trying to work in The States again? Can anyone recommend someone to sort this out for me? They will be waiting with hangcuffs at the port of entry (just a joke truly no idea) again ask a tax professional
6) Can I lease a car for 6 months? Buy a very cheap car and then sell it;' take it to a mechanic first and check on the cheapest required insurance cost for the specific car year and model. An expat friend of mine bought a car for $500 drove it for one year and sold it for $600. All he did on that car was put gas. Of course this was 20 years ago but you get the idea; do the same buy something real cheap with 4 wheels that will run for 6 months. Make sure to invest $75 to $100 to have an independent mechanic look it over before buying it. Unless you're in NYC you'll need a car in most places in the USA.
Thank you all for your replies. I'll add some further info for anyone else on this adventure. First, don't take the advice of The US Consulate in Amsterdam without calling the US Citizen services hotline in The US to find out what all your options are. In my case, The Consulate advised me to let them process a Direct Consular Filing via their office in Germany. This would force my wife to stay behind for three months until it was approved. The US hotline told me my wife could enter The US with a visa waver and file the i130 (green card form) and a change of visa status simultaneously which is the right advice. The full advice is as follows: For Dutch wife: file non-immigrant visa, enter with it or just use visa waver. file i-130, i-485 (application to adjust status concurrently) in The US optionally file the following: i 693 i 864 i 765 i 131 also called the adjustment packet get the forms here: www.uscis.gov I've been looking into cars. Seems to me like the best option is just to buy what you want and sell it after. Rentals are too expensive. People keep warning me about insurance costs. I'd better check into this...
